The High
Court of Justice has affirmed the validity of thousands of conversions called
into question by the Rabbinical Court of Appeals in 2008, but refused to
discuss the rabbinical courts' authority to annul conversions in general.

The
women and various organizations that joined their petition thus asked the High
Court to rule not only on their particular cases - which had already been
resolved, since their Jewishness had since been affirmed by the Tel Aviv
Rabbinical Court during a new hearing on their original cases - but on the
rabbinical courts' authority to overturn conversions in general. This, however,
the justices declined to do.

Over the
past four months, 15 people who have converted in the Diaspora, through
Diaspora rabbinates that Israel deems legitimate, have found themselves denied
citizenship under the Law of Return for one simple reason: They were too keen
to immigrate or, as Israelis say, using a Hebrew term, make aliyah.

Israel’s
Interior Ministry has long asserted that it has the power to withhold
immigration rights from converts unless they have been residents of their
Diaspora community for a period of time after they convert.

It has done so in
defiance of a 2005 Supreme Court ruling stating that because all Jews have
equal rights to aliyah, converts may immigrate as soon as they become Jewish.

Ne'emanei Torah
Va'Avodah: “Let us hope that this ruling, handed down just after Independence
Day, will symbolize a general change in the way the government relates to the
conversion process.

Instead of conversion
policy being decided by the views of extremist judges, not Zionists in the best
case, and anti-Zionists in the worse, conversion policy should be determined by
national officials, such as Rabbi Druckman.”

Legal
expert Dr. Aviad Hacohen said, "The court said some sharp things which
speak for themselves. Hopefully the ruling will mean the petitioners will face
no further humiliation in Israel, but instead be treated with respect as befits
the values of of the Jewish state."

Even though its heart
is in the right place - the Supreme Court is not a Halachic body and in my view
has no business deciding issues of Halacha.

So I’m not sure what
was accomplished other than to further divide Charedim from Religious Zionists.
Their actual status of these converts as Jews thus remains unchanged in the
sense that the right still believes they are not Jews while the left believes
they are.

Furthermore it gives
these people a false sense of security in thinking that a secular court in
Israel can declare them Jewish – end of story. They will find that they will
not be accepted into the Charedi world as Jews at all.

The award
committee noted that the monetary portion of the prize was awarded to
educational and [Army] conversion programs. There is a connection between the
two?

"Certainly
there is a connection. There are many with a relationship to Israel who wish to
come to Israel and be with Israel.

From a
religious Zionist point of view the army and the state are bound up as one. We
must care for our brothers who come to Israel after a long period of physical
and spiritual bondage. We have to feel for such people. If any of them wants to
become a Jew in every respect, we must help them. These things are
connected."

Israel's
political system will know whether or not it's heading for early elections
following the vote on a replacement to the so-called Tal Law on May 9, Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Saturday, adding that his Yisrael Beiteinu
party has exhausted its obligations to the coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.

The bill – written by
MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beytenu), chairman of the Knesset constitution, law and
justice committee chairman – quotes Maimonides, who said that those who do not
work for a living are desecrating God’s name, and that it is forbidden to
receive payment for learning Torah.

Up to 1,000 yeshiva
students be able to receive an exemption from military service, in order to
encourage those with exceptional talents. The same amount of excellent
university students, athletes and artists may receive an exemption, as well.

"The new law will
also include civilian service for Arabs. This must be done without
setting public against public. The change will entail expanding
frameworks and increasing budgets. This is high on the list of priorities
for the security of the state," he added.

"If the prime
minister and the foreign minister want elections, we are ready for elections at
any moment. The election campaign has begun on the backs of the haredi public
because they think that will bring them mandates," Yishai stated.

60% of the religious
sector, 58% of traditional [Jews] and 49% of seculars, said that a compromise
should be reached in order to cause the haredi public to enlist willingly.

But 35% of those polled said that haredim should
be drafted through the uncompromising enforcement of the existing law. Some 4%
argued that the growing enlistment trend within the ultra-Orthodox communities
makes intervention unnecessary.

"Yeted
Ne'eman," a haredi daily affiliated with United Torah Judaism:
"It must be firmly stated – the true 'draft dodgers' are the ones in
the tent," adding that the activists are "endangering the Jewish
people's existence" by "razing the ground on which we stand."

“G-d should bless the
IDF soldiers who stand on guard for our benefit. Without them, we could not
learn Torah. We would be under the thumb of the evil persecutors who harm the
Jewish people. G-d should preserve them and keep them alive and well, as it is
He who is fighting against our enemies.”

"I
want American Jews to feel that they have license to make their voices heard in
Israel about this," said Ms. Hoffman, a former member of the Jerusalem
City Council who now directs the Israel Religious Action Center, the advocacy
arm of the Reform movement in Israel.

"The
fact that the keys to the holiest site for the Jewish people have been given to
the smallest and most extreme faction of the Jewish world is a shame."

Just
before leaving for her American tour, she wrote to the rabbi in charge of the
Wall.

"I
wrote him that we wished to make use of one of the ... Torah scrolls that are
here for public use. I reminded him that women were also at Sinai when the
Torah was received," she said.

"The fight for
the right for public transportation on Shabbat is a struggle for the state's
character," Huldai said. "There is no reason in the world why a
resident of Haifa cannot get on a train on Shabbat and arrive for a picnic at
(Tel Aviv's) Yarkon Park. The time has come to break the status quo vis-à-vis
the haredim."

In the
heart of Jerusalem this past Shabbat, dozens of protesters attended Saturday's
"Tent of the Stuck" rallied in favor of public transportation on
Shabbat.

The event
was cosponsored by Hiddush and a youth forum, "Bamah". Sitting at the
bus station on Shlomtzion street, surrounded by popular bars and restaurants of
Jerusalem, protesters spoke out about the need for public transportation to and
from this area on Saturdays.

The Ministerial
Committee for Legislation approved a bill Sunday morning that would give the
interior minister and religious services minister the final say in the
destruction or rezoning of all religious buildings in the country.

MK Nitzan Horowitz of
Meretz expressed sharp opposition to the bill, stating that it constituted an
attempt by Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Religious Services Minister Ya’acov
Margi, both of Shas, to take control over religious properties.

Keshet-JTS, an
organization of students at the Conservative movement's flagship seminary in
New York, congratulates the Masorti Movement in Israel and the Schechter Rabbinical
Seminary in Jerusalem on its historic decision to admit openly gay and lesbian
students for rabbinic ordination in Israel.

Our communities are stronger, and
our Torah is richer, when the experiences of people of all sexual orientations
and gender identities are celebrated.

The Emek Hefer Regional Council Rabbinate has
canceled the kashrut certification of a catering company that apparently served
nonkosher meat at last week’s Independence Day banquet hosted by President
Shimon Peres. The company failed to attend a special hearing about the incident
on Monday morning.

The sudden departure
this month of the Jewish Agency's veteran chief financial officer, Yaron
Neudorfer, is sending shock waves through the cash-strapped organization as it
grapples with a severe budget deficit.

One veteran agency
official predicts a period of chaos following Neudorfer's departure.

"They
are losing the man who knows all the ins and outs of the budget and the
strategic plans and have no one prepared to take his place at such short
notice," says the official. Uri Yisraeli, the head of the budget
department and the agency's number two moneyman, is also leaving the
organization.

Studies carried out
recently among US Jews indicate that only one in five has visited, or is
planning to visit Israel.

The worrying findings
have led the UJA Federation of New York to present an innovative plan:
"Birthright Israel for Boomers" - a tourism program aimed at adults
that follows the outline of programs already in place for the younger
generation.

This study
provides a roadmap of American Jewish giving to Israel. Overall, we identified
774 organizations that transfer American Jewish donations to Israel, including
667 “American Friends” organizations.

By
analyzing the years these organizations were established, we identified
substantial growth in the number of Israeli NGOs engaged in raising funds from
American Jews.

For the
peak year of 2007, we tabulated $2.059 billion in donations contributed to
causes in Israel through American Jewish organizations and foundations.

Using
various methods to estimate historical trends, we argued that Jewish donations
to causes in Israel increased substantially during the 1990s and 2000s.

We further
argued that American Jewish giving in Israel contributes significantly to the
Israeli Third Sector and signals ongoing American Jewish connection to Israel.

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Jerusalem
has not one, but two holy mountains: The Temple Mount in the east, and Har
Herzl in the west. Har Herzl, or Har haZikaron, “the Mountain of Memory” has a
very deliberate architecture:

Israeli
independence, and the celebration of its achievement, is important. But it is
not sufficient.

We need to
continue the process, counting up the days to the time where we discuss, agree
and sign a covenant of what we – Israel’s stakeholders: citizens and diaspora
Jews – want Israel’s existence to be about. Har Herzl is not enough, we must
find Israel’s new Mt. Sinai so that this exciting project can take flight.